Hey Guys, just to address a question I got, yes, mega evolution will be in the story. I really liked the concept of mega evolution but found Dynamax to be a bit clunky, so dynamax will probably not be in the story, but mega evolution will be.
Chapter 4:
"Pewter City, we're finally here, Blaze!"
"Mander!" Tommy stood atop a hill, gazing down at Pewter City. Blaze stood beside him.
"Alright buddy, time to get back in the pokéball." Tommy recalled Blaze into his pokéball, and continued walking into the city. When he reached the city, he immediately noticed the heavy presence of stone in all the buildings. Tommy wasn't surprised, as Pewter City was known for the stone industry. That's why the pokémon gym was a rock type gym. Being located so close to Mount Moon gave easy access to the raw materials, as well as easy access to rock type pokémon.
Tommy reached the pokémon center, and after a quick exchange with Nurse Joy, set Blaze's pokéball and poliwag's pokéball down on the counter. Tommy felt a twinge of satisfaction since he now had two pokémon instead of one.
As he waited in the lobby of the pokémon center Tommy mulled over his upcoming gym battle. Blaze and Poliwag had worked really hard the previous day, training in Viridian Forest, after the morning incident with the Beedrill. And, poliwag's type advantage should theoretically give them an easy victory. But, it was his first gym battle, and gym leaders were known to be really strong. They also were supposed to have strategies to defend against type weaknesses. Tommy was nervous. But, the Pewter gym was supposed to be the best one for beginners to start with. He just had to be confident. His strategy was sound. All he had to do-
Tommy's thoughts were interrupted by the dinging of the pokémon center, as Chansey walked back to the counter, carrying the tray of Tommy's pokémon. "Thank you Nurse Joy, and you too Chansey."
"Chan, sey!"
"You're welcome, Tommy. Have a good one." Tommy picked up the two pokéballs, shrunk them down, and returned them to his pocket. It was almost lunch time, so Tommy decided to go to the pokémart. He needed to get pokémon food for Poliwag, as well as restock food for Blaze. The pokémart was only a block away, so Tommy arrived in no time.
"Welcome to the pokémart. Would you like to buy or sell?"
"I'd like to buy please. Do you have any pokémon food that water types would like?" The clerk rummaged around for a minute behind the counter before placing a package on the counter.
"That's five meals worth. How many would you like?" Tommy purchased four of the packages, figuring that would be enough to get him to Cerulean City, assuming he won his gym battle anyways. Then, he stocked up on potions and food for Blaze as well. The items were expensive, but Tommy quickly discovered that he could transfer funds directly from his Trainer account. The prize money he had won fighting trainers in Viridian City came in handy, as the bill for the items brought his trainer balance down to $46. His backpack was now too full to fit everything, so Tommy decided to pitch his tent. It wouldn't do him any good anyways now, as it was filled with holes from the Beedrill's stingers. Getting rid of it was the right call, even if it seemed like a waste.
So after pitching the tent, Tommy returned to the pokémon center. This time though, he went to the battlefield out back. He sat for a minute, watching two trainers battle. A girl that looked slightly older than Tommy battled a boy who appeared to be his age.
"Shelly, use water pulse!" The girl commanded her squirtle calmly and confidently. She wore a dark blue skirt, a light gray shirt, and a white jacket. Her long brown hair flowed down just below her shoulders
"Butterfree dodge it!" The boy she battled called back, but before his butterfree could avoid the attack a huge pulse of water slammed into it. "Butterfree no!" The other boy wore a t-shirt and shorts, and as Tommy watched the battle go on, he could tell the boy was outclassed. After a series of moves going back and forth, the squirtle knocked the Butterfree out of the air with another water pulse. Tommy knew it was almost over.
"Shelly," the girl said, her enthusiasm and confidence almost audible, "finish it off with ice punch!" Tommy was shocked. He didn't think Squirtle learned ice punch. But, sure enough, the squirtle's fist began to glow with an icy blue as it leaped at the butterfree and landed its ice punch. That was it. The battle was over.
"Butterfree return." The boy called butterfree back to its pokémon before walking to the girl. "Your squirtle's crazy strong! Great battle."
"You too!" The boy headed inside to get his butterfree checked out by Nurse Joy while the girl began to play with her squirtle. Tommy hurried over to the girl.
"That was amazing!" He said. "Your squirtle is great! I didn't even know squirtles could learn ice punch!"
"Don't tell that to me," She said angrily. "Tell it to Shelly." Tommy was a bit taken aback, but he didn't want to offend anyone.
"Okay." Tommy crouched down to the ground. "Hey, Shelly," he said tentatively, "I think you're really strong. That battle was great!"
"Hahahahaha, hahaha." The girl burst out laughing. "Sorry, but I totally got you."
"Squirtle!" Squirtle laughed too. Tommy's cheeks flushed to a deep shade of red; he was extremely embarrased.
"Oh wow, yeah, you did. I must've looked pretty stupid," he said, forcing a disheartened laugh.
"Don't feel bad," she said. "It just means you care about pokémon." Tommy smiled, feeling a little better.
"Thanks. I'm Tommy."
"I'm Amanda. And thank you Tommy. Squirtle's done a lot of special training to learn ice punch and get super strong before she evolves."
"Well I can see it's paying off. But your squirtle looks experienced enough to already have evolved."
"Squirtle wanted to beat the Vermillion gym before she evolved. My little girl's too prideful for her own good. But, we agreed to do it, so Squirtle didn't evolve. But, now she can. I'm sure it'll happen soon. Right, squirtle?"
"Squirtle!"
"Wow, so you beat the Vermillion City gym?"
"Yep. I've got three gym badges now. I'm coming back this way to go challenge the Viridian City gym. What about you, you're a trainer, right? Can I see your pokémon?"
"Sure." Tommy reached into his pocket and pulled out two pokéballs. "Come on out guys!" Tossing the pokéballs in the air, Tommy released Blaze and Poliwag. "This is Blaze, and Poliwag."
"Aw," Amanda crouched down "Your pokémon are so cute. Hi Blaze. What'd you say poliwag's name was?"
"Um, I haven't named him yet. I've been thinking about it, but haven't come up with anything."
"Huh, okay. It's a boy right?" Tommy nodded. "How about…rio?"
"Rio? I like that. What do you think Poliwag!"
"Poli! Poliwag!" Poliwag leaped into Amanda's arms.
"Oh! Haha, I guess Poliwag likes that name."
"Sounds good to me, Rio." Amanda set Rio back down onto the ground.
"I have an idea! Let's battle! I'll use Shelly and another one of my pokémon!"
"Let's do it!" Tommy said, excited.
"Char!" Charmander said, grabbing Tommy's pants.
"Oh, right. Thanks Blaze. I'm sorry, but I can't battle you right now. I have to go challenge the Pewter City Gym."
"Oh, that's disappointing." Amanda said, frowning. "Wait, is this your first gym battle?" Tommy nodded sheepishly, a bit embarrased. "That's amazing! Ooh I have to come watch! Please?"
"Uh, yeah. Sure, I guess. Alright guys, you ready?"
"Char!"
"Poli!" Tommy called his pokémon back into their pokéballs and turned back to Amanda.
"Do you know where the gym is?"
"Of course!" Amanda called Shelly back into her pokéball. "This way!" Before Tommy could move Amanda grabbed his wrist and began pulling him with her. "The pewter city gym was the first gym I challenged," she said, now running and dragging Tommy behind her. "Course, it was a piece of cake with Shelly."
"Amanda! Slow down!" Amanda finally let go of Tommy's wrist and turned around.
"Come on, Tommy. You've got to be more excited! This is your first gym challenge! Get psyched!" Tommy couldn't help but smile at her enthusiasm, and began to jog after her. After a brief run they finally reached the outside of the Pewter gym, a large building with an outside made of large stones. Tommy moved to the door, took a deep breath, and opened it up.
"Welcome to the Pewter City Gym!" A little girl, who had to be no older than eleven stood by the entrance. She had short spiky brown hair. "Are you a challenger?" She asked, looking up at Tommy.
"Hi. Um, yeah." He hadn't expected someone so young. "My name's Tommy, I want to challenge the Pewter Gym."
"I'm just here to watch." Amanda chimed in.
"Okay, how many gym badges do you have?"
"I don't have any, this will be my first gym battle."
"Okay, please come right this way," then, speaking to Amanda, "there's seating where you can watch inside." The girl led them down the hallway and into a large and bright room. Tommy walked in to see a large battlefield in front of him. The battlefield was open in the middle and had large boulders and rocks lined up along the sides. Amanda began walking around to the side of the field, where a set of bleachers was built into the wall. Tommy stepped forward and gulped, clearing his throat.
"Welcome!" A voice shouted from across the battlefield. A tan teenager with spiky brown hair wearing a green collard shirt stood across from him. "My name is Forrest, and I'm the Pewter City Gym leader. Welcome to my gym! What's your name?"
"My name is Tommy, and I'm from Vermillion City."
"Alright Tommy, congrats on having your first gym battle. Are you ready to go?"
"Yeah, I'm ready."
"Alright," the little girl from before spoke again. "The battle between Forrest the gym leader and Tommy the challenger will now begin. This will be a two on two battle, and only the challenger will be allowed to make substitutions. I will be acting as the referee. Battle begin!"
"Alright Tommy, here we go. Geodude! I choose you!" Forrest chucked his pokéball forward to release a geodude onto the battlefield. Okay, Tommy thought. In that case…
Tommy reached into his pocket and grabbed a pokéball. "Rio!" Tommy chucked his pokéball onto the battlefield to release poliwag. "Let's win this thing!"
"Poli!"
"Alright Tommy, you get the first move!"
"Okay. Here we go, Rio! Use Water Gun!" Rio blasted a stream of water straight at the geodude, but before the stream of water could hit Forrest responded.
"Use Dig!" The Geodude burrowed into the ground before Rio's attack could hit, leaving only a spray of water on the gym wall.
"Alright Rio, wait for it to pop up, then use bubblebeam." Poliwag stood nervously, moving his head around, searching for the rock pokémon underground. Suddenly the geodude launched from the surface and smacked Rio up into the air.
"Wag!" Poliwag cried out.
"Rio use bubblebeam now!" As the poliwag was falling to the ground he launched a fierce bubble beam attack that made direct contact with the geodude.
"GEO!" The super effective attack severely weakened the geodude, and although Rio took some damage, dig wasn't very effective against a water type.
"Geodude, use defense curl!" The geodude curled into a ball, strengthening its defense.
"Rio, quickly use bubble beam once more!" Rio launched another stream of bubbles at the curled up geodude, causing a small explosion. Dust flew up everywhere, hiding the battlefield.
"Geodude use dig again!" The dust finally settled to reveal poliwag alone on the battlefield, with the geodude hidden under ground once again.
"Wait for it to come up Rio, then use bubble beam again!" But as they waited, the geodude didn't come up.
"Defense curl geodude, and stay underground!" Tommy began to panic. If geodude stays underground then it can just keeping rasing its defense stat. "Defense curl again!"
"I got it. Rio, use water gun and shoot it down the hole!" Rio jumped over to the hole and fired a powerful water gun down the hole. At first, nothing happened, but after a moment, a cry of pain sounded and the geodude was rocketed out of the ground.
"Geodude is unable to battle." The girl decreed. "Poliwag wins."
"Great job rio, that was awesome!"
"Whoo! Keep it up Tommy!" Amanda cheered from the bleachers. After recalling geodude, Forrest pulled out his second poéball.
"Alright, Rhydon, let's go!" Forrest released his second pokémon, the drill pokémon. "My Rhydon just evolved, and this will be its first gym battle! But don't go thinking you'll be able to win because of that!"
"We're definitely gonna win! Rio! Use bubblebeam!"
"Rhydon, use Hammer Arm to block!" Rhydon held up its glowing arm and stopped all of the bubbles. "Now use horn attack!" Rhydon leaped towards the poliwag and delivered a powerful horn attack.
"Rio! Can you get up?" The poliwag struggled, but eventually got to its feet. "Alright rio, use water gun!" The water gun made direct contact as the Rhydon took the hit.
"Now Rhydon, use hammer arm!" Rhydon quickly moved towards Rio with a glowing arm, and before the poliwag could get away, Rhydon smashed its arm down on poliwag's head. When the dust from the impact cleared, poliwag was knocked out on the ground.
"Poliwag is unable to battle," the ref declared. "Rhydon wins."
"Thanks Rio, you were great." Tommy put Rio's pokéball away and grabbed his other one. Alright Blaze, Rhydon has to be weak. He took a direct hit from one of Rio's water guns.
"Let's do it Blaze! You're up!" Tommy launched Blaze's pokéball into the air, releasing Charmander.
"Char! Charmander! CHAR!" Charmander roared, getting fired up.
"Alright Charmander, use growl!"
"CHAR!" Charmander growled fiercely, making Rhydon lose some of its attack power. "
"Rhydon!" Forrest yelled. "Use Smack Down!"
"Dodge it Blaze!" Charmander narrowly leapt out of the way from Rhydon's attack. "Use ember!" Charmander spat flames at the Rhydon, but instead of bothering to dodge, the Rhydon just absorbed the hit.
"You're gonna have to do better then that! Fire type attacks can't take down my Rhydon! Now, use horn attack once more!" This time the Rhydon's horn attack hit its mark, knocking Blaze back and onto the ground. Tommy knew that Blaze couldn't take much more of this.
"Okay Blaze, put everything into this attack. Ember! Full power!" Blaze opened his mouth wide, and took three deep breaths.
"Rhydon! Use Hammer Arm to block it once it comes!" Rhydon's arm began to glow as it prepared to defend against the ember. But, when Blaze fired his attack, there weren't any orange flames. Instead, Blaze released an intense purple and blue beam of energy straight at the Rhydon, causing a massive explosion.
"No way! That was dragon breath! Blaze, you learned dragon breath!" The smoke cleared, revealing Rhydon, now covered in cuts and scratches, breathing heavily.
"Char!" Charmander spat.
"Wow. I'm impressed. But learning a new move won't save you. Rhydon, finish this with smack down!"
"Blaze! Let's wrap this up with dragon breath!" Another purple and blue blast met Rhydon's hammer arm. At first, Rhydon cut through the beam.
"CHAR!" But, as Charmander roared, the strength of the beam intensified, and Rhydon's hammer arm gave way. As the beam reached Rhydon the field exploded. Tommy covered his eyes as the smoke reached him. After a minute, the smoke cleared.
"Rhydon is unable to battle! Charmander wins," the girl spoke loudly after seeing Rhydon fainted on the ground, "which means the victor is Tommy from Vermillion City!"
"Awesome! You were so great Blaze!"
"Char!" Blaze jumped into Tommy's arms, knocking him backwards.
"Great job buddy." Tommy scratched under Blaze's chin eliciting a happy coo.
"Congratulations Tommy, that was a great battle. Here you-" Forrest stopped. "Are you okay? You look really pale."
"I'm fine," Tommy started, but as he spoke, his ears began to ring. Forrest continued speaking, but Tommy couldn't hear him. His vision began to blur, becoming speckled with small black dots. The world began to spin, and before anyone could catch him, Tommy crumpled to the ground, unconscious.
"Get up!" Tommy's eyes jolted open at the sound of a voice. He sat up, rubbing his eyes. But when he looked around, he was no longer in the Pewter Gym. Instead, he was laying on the ground in a forrest, surrounded by trees. "Forrest? Amanda?" Tommy called out.
"Pika!" Tommy spun around. Behind him stood a teenager with amber eyes. It was the very same boy with the pikachu that Tommy had seen in Pallet Town. He was sure of it. "Pika pikachu!" The pikachu sat on the boy's shoulder, smiling down at him.
"Where am I?" Tommy asked. The boy in the red hat smirked, but didn't answer him. Instead, he turned around and began to walk away. Tommy got up to follow him, but the boy just disappeared into the forest, without a trace.
"Tommy! Tommy!" Tommy was shaken awake. His eyes opened to see Forrest grabbing his shoulders, and Amanda and the other girl standing above him.
"I'm good, I'm good." Tommy sat up. "What happened?"
"You just fell to the ground without warning; I think you fainted," Forrest said. "You better take it easy."
"No, no, I'm okay," Tommy said, standing up. "I feel fine. It's just weird. When I blacked out, I think I saw a kid with a pikachu on his shoulder. I must be going crazy, cause I think I saw him in Pallet Town too. Sorry, I don't mean to confuse you. Don't worry about it." Forrest pursed his lips, but hesitated. Nodding his head he reached into his pocket. "Here you go," he said, extending his hand. "Congratulations, you earned the Boulder Badge! Great Battle!"
"Thanks," Tommy responded, grasping the gym badge and tucking it into his pocket.
"Do you need a badge case?" Forrest asked.
"A badge case?"
"Yeah, hey Suzie, can you go grab one?" The girl that had acted as the referee, Suzie, nodded and walked off. After a minute she returned, and handed Tommy a small plastic case with a clear cover. Tommy popped open the lid and placed the Boulder Badge inside in the top left.
"Thank you. You hear that Blaze? We got the boulder badge!"
"Char!" Tommy closed up the badge case and tucked it away in his backpack.
"Are you sure you're okay Tommy?" Amanda asked him.
"Yeah, yeah. I'm fine. Alright Blaze, return." Tommy called Blaze back into his pokéball.
"Okay. I have to go to the pokémart before I leave for Viridian City, but I'll meet you back at the pokémon center before I leave." Without another word, Amanda walked away from the battlefield and left the gym. Tommy turned to follow her and leave the building himself, but Forrest stopped him before he could get far.
"Hey, Tommy. You're probably going to Cerulean City for your next gym badge, right?" Tommy nodded.
"Yeah, I was planning on it anyways."
"My brother's been in Cerulean for a while now. I think you should go talk to him. I don't know what's going on, but what you said, about a guy with a pikachu from Pallet Town, I think I know him. His name's Ash Ketchum, and he used to travel with my brother Brock. Maybe you can learn something from Brock about him."
"Thanks, Forrest. I really appreciate that. I'll be sure to look around for him. Where should I go?"
"Just talk to the gym leader. She'll know where he is. Anyways, I'll look forward to battling you again sometime, once you have eight gym badges of course."
"What do you mean?" Tommy questioned.
"This isn't the most well known fact, but when gym leaders battle challengers, they don't always use their strongest pokémon." Tommy reeled back. As far as he knew, gym leaders always went 100% in their battles. "Basically, gym leaders are supposed to test you based on how many gym badges you have. For example, if you had walked in here with five or more gym badges, I probably would have used my Rhyperior and Golem. So come back one day, and we'll have a rematch. Okay?" Forrest reached out his hand, and Tommy grabbed and shook it.
"Definitely, thanks again Forrest."
Tommy sat in the pokémon center, waiting for Rio and Blaze to be healed when the door opened, and Amanda walked in.
"Amanda, hey!" Tommy waved as she walked over.
"Hey, Tommy. How are Blaze and Rio doing?" Amanda asked.
"They're almost healed," Tommy said, "so how about that battle once they're good to go?" Amanda sighed.
"I wish I could, but I should really get going to Viridian City. We'll just have to wait until another time."
"Okay, but when will I see you again?" Amanda leaned in towards him and batted her eyelashes.
"You'll just have to wait and see." She whispered. And before Tommy could blink, Amanda rushed out the door of the pokémon center, leaving Tommy staring behind her.
Alright guys, that's the end of chapter 4. Let me know what you thought of the gym battle and the rest of the chapter, as well as any predictions for the rest of the story. Please Review!